Inappropriate Content: China bans disturbing videos online

World
Europe

China has ordered video sites to clean up a large number of disturbing clips. These videos target children and feature popular cartoon characters in sexual and violent situations. ZHENG CHUNYING has the story.

The fabulous princess Elsa once impressed the world with her amazing powers over ice and snow in the hit Disney animated musical fantasy film Frozen. However, the Snow Queen has recently been depicted in disturbing situations, like getting pregnant or undergoing surgery.

More surprisingly, a large number of such videos have recently emerged on China's video platforms. These videos presented content such as violence, sexual situations, and toilet humor, triggering massive condemnation from the public.

"It's too violent, it's so inappropriate for kids. They would imitate violent behaviour after watching the videos."

To attract young viewers and disguise inappropriate content, the videos are named after popular characters like Spider-Man, Elsa and terms like education and learn colors.

China's National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications said on Monday that it had launched a nationwide campaign against the videos.

Chinese video platforms Tencent, Iqiyi and Youku have started removing such videos and sensitive words such as child cult film, and Elsa got pregnant are banned from search engines. For many parents, cartoons for their kids are much more than entertainment.

Good cartoons for kids should help them better know the world, and inspire them to be kind, brave, and optimistic. Children can get knowledge while watching the cartoons.

Needless to say, much stricter supervision is needed to ensure kids aren't exposed to inappropriate content. ZHENG CHUNYING,CGTN.